Do you feel secure with this security minister still in charge of security ?

The latest news has it that Deputy Minister for Internal Security Noh Omar has been publicly reprimanded by his boss PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who is also the Minister for Internal Security.

It is good that, at least, Noh Omar has been reminded that he is not the President of the Republic of PDRM, but just a deputy minister who is under the command of his immediate boss, PM Abdullah. He has also been reportedly called " an idiot" by one of his senior party comrades in the BBC News which is read by millions of people worldwide.

However, with due personal respect to PM Abdullah, I must also say that the reprimand is not sufficient to assuage public fear and anxiety about a man whose EQ has been shown to be extremely low and who is prone to emotional and bodoh sombong outburst still being retained as a deputy minister in political charge of one of the armed security services. My dossier on him has it that, on 29 October, 2003, Noh Omar, then the Parliamentary Secretary in the PM's Department, swaggered in the august House with terminologies of militant jihadism by calling DAP kafir habir (belligerent infidels) and MCA kafir zimmi (friendly infidels).

Of course, if I were still an Member of Parliament at that time, I would have thrown him a few books written by Professor Bernard Lewis such as What Weng Wrong? (London, Weidenfeld & Nocolson, 2002) and invited him for a debate to balance his mind.

We certainly need a cooler, more intelligent, tolerant, broadminded and mentally disciplined man to replace Noh Omar to serve as a better and more inspiring role model for the policemen and policewomen in our multiethnic and multireligious society, many of whom are still individually respected by the people.